Ara Eivissa has called for political explanations from Sant Josep Mayor Vicent Roig and Consell d'Eivissa Territory Councillor Mariano Juan over the failure of the municipality's provisional planning framework to reach final approval.

The political group issued its criticism on Tuesday, 29 September, one day after Roig presented a new municipal strategy for urban planning and land management covering the 2026-2029 period.

Ara Eivissa described the situation as an "absolute failure" of urban planning and called on those responsible for the process to account for the return to Sant Josep's 1986 planning rules. These descriptions are the political position of Ara Eivissa rather than an independent finding.

Sant Josep returns to its 1986 planning rules

The dispute follows the collapse of the provisional planning framework intended to provide an interim system while the municipality works towards a new Plan General de Ordenación Urbana, or PGOU.

The Consell de Ibiza's CIOTUPHA initially approved the Normas Provisionales de Planeamiento for Sant Josep on 15 December 2025, together with a partial suspension of the existing planning rules. The provisional framework was intended to address a number of urban planning issues while the definitive plan was being prepared.

The provisional rules did not receive definitive approval within the applicable period and their validity subsequently ended. Sant Josep has therefore returned to the Normas Subsidiarias dating from 1986 while the new planning framework continues to be prepared.

Ara Eivissa questions what went wrong

Ara Eivissa argues that the return to the 1986 rules represents a step backwards after years of work on provisional regulations and the new PGOU.

The group says the provisional rules had already been taken through the municipal plenary process and criticises the lack of a final agreement between the local and island administrations.

Ara Eivissa specifically asks Roig and Juan to explain why agreements that had previously been announced did not result in the definitive approval of the provisional rules.

The party also calls for political responsibility and says both officials should resign. Those are demands made by Ara Eivissa in its political statement.

New urban planning strategy presented

The criticism came shortly after Sant Josep unveiled its new "Sant Josep, Orden y Planificación" strategy on 28 September.

According to the municipality, the programme follows a territorial audit covering more than 350 sectors and more than 10.4 million square metres of land, equivalent to around 1,041 hectares.

The audit identified 244 areas with particular circumstances or deficiencies that the council says will now receive direct municipal monitoring and management.

Six groups for the 244 identified areas

The municipality has divided the 244 areas into six management groups according to their current situation.

Twenty areas are considered consolidated and require no intervention. A further 38 are awaiting documentary procedures, while 73 require streets or basic services to be completed.

Another 56 areas require urban transformation and land transfers, 48 are awaiting detailed planning, and nine are dependent on the structure eventually adopted by the future PGOU.

The council says each area has been given an individual technical file recording its precise boundaries, the progress of works and the legal status of compulsory land transfers.

A dedicated technical unit for 2026-2029

Sant Josep plans to continue the programme through a dedicated technical unit during the 2026-2029 period.

The municipality says the temporary three-year programme will involve nine public employees, including a technical drawing specialist, a civil engineering technician and administrative staff, with additional support from existing municipal officials.

The plan also includes an annual allocation of around €45,000 for external legal advice, environmental support and land valuation expertise.

How the municipality plans to finance works

The strategy includes a four-stage process covering diagnosis and preparation of an individual file, on-site analysis, preparation of infrastructure works and calculation of the execution cost.

According to the town hall, smaller interventions, such as certain administrative procedures or minor connections, will be handled directly by the municipality.

For larger works, the proposed financing model combines municipal funds for infrastructure of general interest, resources generated through urban planning management and special contributions from property owners who benefit directly from the improvements.

The municipality's stated objective

Mayor Vicent Roig has presented the strategy as a move towards more direct municipal management of outstanding urban planning issues.

The town hall says its objective is to unblock land, resolve outstanding infrastructure and planning problems and create the conditions needed to advance towards final approval of the new PGOU.

The municipality also says the aim is to reach the future general plan with the outstanding urban planning situations identified and with streets and other infrastructure in the areas concerned properly addressed.

Ara Eivissa criticises the timing and approach

Ara Eivissa disputes the significance of the new strategy, arguing that many of the actions announced are part of the municipality's ordinary urban management responsibilities.

The party also questions the introduction of area-specific planning solutions, saying the current situation could create uncertainty for residents and property owners who need to understand how their individual areas will be managed.

Ara Eivissa further alleges that the Urban Planning department has focused primarily on processing licences without resolving the wider structural problems affecting different parts of the municipality. That is the party's assessment of municipal management and has not been independently established in the sources reviewed.

A long-running planning problem

Sant Josep's current situation follows years of attempts to replace or update the municipality's 1986 planning framework.

The town hall itself acknowledged in 2024 that the existing rules were outdated and said it was working with the Consell on provisional regulations while a new PGOU was prepared. That process later resulted in the initial approval of the provisional rules in December 2025, but the framework did not reach definitive approval.

The municipality is now pursuing a different approach, combining the preparation of the future PGOU with direct management of the 244 areas identified through its latest audit.

What happens next

For now, Sant Josep is operating under its 1986 Normas Subsidiarias while the municipality continues work on its new general planning framework.

The immediate focus of the new 2026-2029 strategy is to examine and manage the specific urban planning situations identified in the audit, while continuing the process towards a new PGOU.

Meanwhile, Ara Eivissa is demanding explanations from both the municipal and island administrations over the failure of the provisional planning framework and is maintaining its call for political responsibility.